up the chairs one by one. Each closed with a hard clang. “So you played around in L.A. for a few months. But then you’re going right back to the path that was laid out for you the day you were born. I bet you tested into the right preschool when you were four and just kept moving up the ladder from there. The next notch is Yale, so that’s where you’ll go, just like your mother and everyone else expects you to.”
Anna stood and kept her voice cool. “You’re taking your anger out on me when you’re really pissed off at your father.” She could feel her fingernails digging into the palms of her hands. No matter how much he was taking his anger out on her, she wasn’t going to sink to his level. And she wasn’t going to let him see how much he’d rattled her, taken the snow globe that was her life and shaken it so thoroughly that the pieces were falling from the heavens to the floor.
“Maybe,” Ben allowed. He’d folded the other two chairs and now reached for the one she’d just abandoned. “Or maybe I’m just finally saying what needs to be said. You came to L.A. to shake things up in your life. Then you met me, a guy who was still acceptable because I had the Ivy stamp of approval. Because when you first saw me, I was wearing a Princeton sweatshirt. And now what—you can’t stand the thought of being with a dropout, a guy whose dream is a nightclub rather than passing the bar? The truth is, for all your talk of mixing things up, you’re too afraid to make a mistake. You’re too afraid to go off the beaten path. You’re always going to do what you were born and bred to do.” With that, he grabbed her chair and closed it with a swift, final motion.
I won’t cry. I won’t cry. I won’t cry
, Anna vowed to herself. She gulped hard so that she could at least make an effort to speak without her voice shaking. “If you think so little of me, why do you even want to be with me?”
“Good point. I guess I don’t. You know where the exit is—it’s the way my father went.” Ben rubbed a weary hand over his face. Then he headed back inside, leaving Anna by herself in the alley. She was alone, in a way she hadn’t been in a very long time.
Bye, Bye Love
S am awoke to the sound of house finches chirping outside the open bedroom window of Eduardo’s condo on the Wilshire corridor between the 405 and the ocean. She felt so fabulous that she thought she might just chirp along with them if she could do so in tune, which she definitely could not. Singing was not her talent. Hopefully, film directing was; she was still on the lookout for a script that would be her first full-length (if low-budget) feature.
With the pesky falling-in-love-with-the-right-guy thing out of the way, she figured the script search would be a snap. Everyone and his brother or sister was a writer in Los Angeles. You just had to shovel through a lot of shit to find the hidden jewel.
Speaking of shit. Holy shit. She was
engaged.
She nearly laughed with joy as she turned to study Eduardo’s profile. He was still asleep, one hand flung overhead, the muscles in his shoulder and upper arm golden and defined. The covers had slid down to his waist. She took in his torso, the lean six-pack, the sheer beauty of him. This dashing, fantastic, smart, sweet, wonderful guy loved her. Really, really loved her, exactly as she was.
Damn. The ring was on her finger. She lifted it and let the morning sun bounce though the diamond’s facets. Brilliant. The guy had great taste in bling. If only her friends could be so lucky.
It was ironic even for the town that had invented the Age of Irony. Anna, who’d been so tight with Ben, had called her late yesterday after her terrible argument with him. Then Cammie had sent a text to mark the end of her relationship with Adam Flood: ADAM CIAO ON 2 THE NXT … Out of Sam, Cammie, Dee, and Anna, Sam had always figured herself to be the least likely to end up romantically happy, mostly because she only
Anna stood and kept her voice cool. “You’re taking your anger out on me when you’re really pissed off at your father.” She could feel her fingernails digging into the palms of her hands. No matter how much he was taking his anger out on her, she wasn’t going to sink to his level. And she wasn’t going to let him see how much he’d rattled her, taken the snow globe that was her life and shaken it so thoroughly that the pieces were falling from the heavens to the floor.
“Maybe,” Ben allowed. He’d folded the other two chairs and now reached for the one she’d just abandoned. “Or maybe I’m just finally saying what needs to be said. You came to L.A. to shake things up in your life. Then you met me, a guy who was still acceptable because I had the Ivy stamp of approval. Because when you first saw me, I was wearing a Princeton sweatshirt. And now what—you can’t stand the thought of being with a dropout, a guy whose dream is a nightclub rather than passing the bar? The truth is, for all your talk of mixing things up, you’re too afraid to make a mistake. You’re too afraid to go off the beaten path. You’re always going to do what you were born and bred to do.” With that, he grabbed her chair and closed it with a swift, final motion.
I won’t cry. I won’t cry. I won’t cry
, Anna vowed to herself. She gulped hard so that she could at least make an effort to speak without her voice shaking. “If you think so little of me, why do you even want to be with me?”
“Good point. I guess I don’t. You know where the exit is—it’s the way my father went.” Ben rubbed a weary hand over his face. Then he headed back inside, leaving Anna by herself in the alley. She was alone, in a way she hadn’t been in a very long time.
Bye, Bye Love
S am awoke to the sound of house finches chirping outside the open bedroom window of Eduardo’s condo on the Wilshire corridor between the 405 and the ocean. She felt so fabulous that she thought she might just chirp along with them if she could do so in tune, which she definitely could not. Singing was not her talent. Hopefully, film directing was; she was still on the lookout for a script that would be her first full-length (if low-budget) feature.
With the pesky falling-in-love-with-the-right-guy thing out of the way, she figured the script search would be a snap. Everyone and his brother or sister was a writer in Los Angeles. You just had to shovel through a lot of shit to find the hidden jewel.
Speaking of shit. Holy shit. She was
engaged.
She nearly laughed with joy as she turned to study Eduardo’s profile. He was still asleep, one hand flung overhead, the muscles in his shoulder and upper arm golden and defined. The covers had slid down to his waist. She took in his torso, the lean six-pack, the sheer beauty of him. This dashing, fantastic, smart, sweet, wonderful guy loved her. Really, really loved her, exactly as she was.
Damn. The ring was on her finger. She lifted it and let the morning sun bounce though the diamond’s facets. Brilliant. The guy had great taste in bling. If only her friends could be so lucky.
It was ironic even for the town that had invented the Age of Irony. Anna, who’d been so tight with Ben, had called her late yesterday after her terrible argument with him. Then Cammie had sent a text to mark the end of her relationship with Adam Flood: ADAM CIAO ON 2 THE NXT … Out of Sam, Cammie, Dee, and Anna, Sam had always figured herself to be the least likely to end up romantically happy, mostly because she only
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